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Morning Five: 12.16.10 Edition

Posted by jstevrtc on December 16th, 2010

Missouri has suspended sophomore point guard Michael Dixon indefinitely for a team rules violation that head coach Mike Anderson has declined to reveal. Dixon had been solid in directing traffic for the Tigers this season, averaging a team-best 4.3 APG and 2.4 SPG, leading the team in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.6), and hitting 82.5% from the free throw line (second on the team), in addition to his contribution of 10.7 PPG. Freshman Phil Pressey (3.8 PPG, 3.0 APG, 1.4 SPG) is Dixon’s understudy, and it looks like it’s the young fella’s team until further notice.

Oklahoma freshman T.J. Taylor has decided to take his services elsewhere — at least we hope so. By that, we don’t mean that we want Taylor to leave the Sooners (he’s already decided on that), it’s that we just want to him to eventually play somewhere. Taylor, a top-100 recruit overall and a top-20 point guard in last year’s class, never played a second for OU, having suffered a concussion in the preseason. He’s said to be leaving the school for personal reasons and headed to junior college, and the quotes from the linked story indicate that the split is an amicable one, but we hope he can put any physical or mental/personal blocks behind him and that we’ll see T.J. back on a bigger stage soon, if that’s what he wants.

Oh, Scoop Jardine. What happened, man? You somehow manage to overcome some pretty tall hurdles during your early days at Syracuse — and then this?? Hey, we’ve made mistakes, too. And we love your game, and acknowledge your apology, which we saw before you were taken down. But seriously, pardner…your newsworthiness should come from the classroom and the basketball floor. You’re an upperclassman. You’re so close; we think the Twitter hiatus is an appropriate move.

Rise up, Kenny “Mouse” McFadden disciples! The Cleveland Cavaliers are underwhelming their constituents to such a degree that some Free Stampers are deserting the Cavs for the local undefeated college team — namely, 12-0 Cleveland State — according to ABC affiliate WEWS. We can’t advocate the abandonment of any team at any level just because they’re not doing so hot, but we do love that people are taking time to head over and support the Vikings. We love the quote from CSU student Jessica Longstreet that finishes the article (and embedded video). We don’t know Miss Longstreet, but with such insights, we think she deserves high honors in all of her courses this term.

Boy, can we get behind this: yesterday was the debut of College Basketball Today, the new college hoops talk show on Sirius XM. We’re talking about daily roundball discussion from noon to 3 pm ET with former Vermont coach Tom Brennan (!), ESPN’s Bob Valvano, some former-player perspective with Kenny Anderson and Jim Jackson, all tied together by NYC-based broadcaster Jason Horowitz. Many of us here are Sirius XM users [RTC Legal just handed me a memo asking me to remind our dear readers that any comment or endorsement found here about said satellite radio provider is unsolicited], and we’re glad to see this niche filled, especially considering how much we enjoy the nightly selection of games when we’re on the road. There’s just one problem. The show’s only on Wednesdays until — grrrrrooooooan — the end of the college football season, then it goes daily. Come on!!